Festival Kreol Explodes with Creole Culture!

The 26th annual Festival Kreol takes place this October on the Seychelles islands of Mahé, Praslin and La Digue. Music, dance, food, art and entertainment will share the stage with education and cultural understanding in this celebration of Creole culture.

The 26th annual Festival Kreol will soon blast onto the scene, with the celebration spreading out across the three main Seychelles islands of Mahé, Praslin and La Digue to make the fun more accessible to more people. A week-long celebration of all things Creole, Festival Kreol highlights the cultural contributions of Creole language, dance, art, games, food and lifestyle. Although the festival takes place in Seychelles, this celebration is not limited to recognizing only local Creole, but welcomes and embraces all Creole hailing from points across the globe, adding a richness of diversification to the festival. Outlandishly fun like Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, but with solid underpinnings of cultural understanding, Festival Kreol combines all the bright colours and excitement of an enormous party with a mission to further education and recognize accomplishments of Creole people. For example, the Konpetisyon Kanmtole is an evening of dance performance. Several traditional Creole dances are performed to Creole music, demonstrating the type of dance style that is the elemental form of Seychellois dance. The evening climaxes with the kontredans dance. Over at the Creole Institute, another dance event will be taking place: the grand ball called the Bal Asosye. This event starts in the evening, and continues right on until the next day at six a.m! In addition to dancing, guests will enjoy a cornucopia of scrumptious Creole dishes, including breadfruit, cassava and a variety of cakes. If you fall asleep during the Bal Asosye, don’t be surprised if you’re awakened with a bowl of soup to refresh you and coax you back out onto the dance floor! And speaking of dance, two tap dancers will be joining the festival all the way from London, and will attempt to create a “Creole” style of tap dancing! The youth get to strut their stuff and show off their many performing talents in the Moman Kreativite. This variety show competition showcases the music, drama, dance and storytelling skills of the kids. Two events will be held this year, with one show on Praslin and another taking place on Mahé. At this same gala that features all that jubilance and more, there are more sober attractions, tailored for the purpose of furthering understanding of Creole culture. An international art competition, open to Creole youth aged four to 21, is designed to develop creativity and increase appreciation of the rich values of Creole culture. Participants submit their work to the exhibition and the pieces are judged by an international jury. This year, the competition’s theme is “biodiversity.” Creole film making is promoted at the festival, and Creole language poems and songs are recited. Another endeavour to showcase and support the Creole language is the Quiz, a competition in which youth and adult students compete in teams to see who knows the most about Creole vocabulary, culture and environment. Come for the fun; stay for the enlightenment. Drink in the many facets of Creole culture in this annual celebration. Festival Kreol kicks off October 23rd and runs through October 30th.